| May-26-08 |
| Judah: The endgame wasn't very well played. White needed to keep his Bishop within access of the d1-h5 diagonal, in order to prevent Black from playing his King to h5 and capturing the pawn. With 78. Rc2, White gave this up:
click for larger view He has no safe way to get his Bishop back to the diagonal in time: d1, d3, a4, e4, f5, and g6 are all controlled by the enemy, and b3 is in the path of a potential fork. b1 is far too slow. All Black needs to do is stroll down to h5 and take the pawn. Any safe move along the d1-h5 diagonal, instead, would have held the game for White. |
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| May-26-08 |
| Judah: But Black does not seem to notice this. His King heads in the wrong direction with 78...Kf6, and with 79...Rd1, he lets White out of the trap. The Bishop can now escape to e4, whence it has access to the crucial h5 diagonal once again. |
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| May-26-08 |
| Judah: Still oblivious, Krueger fails to take advantage of this opening. After 80.Bc2, Wegemund can simply play his Rook back to d4 and take up his winning position again. (He can also win with Rc1, in a similar manner to the way he finally won the game [pinning or forking the Bishop and pawn, after the Bishop is forced to the fourth rank].) |
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| May-26-08 |
| Judah: But Wegemund <still> doesn't notice this possibility, and lets Krueger off the hook once again with 80...Rg2+. This time, White finally notices the threat, and after 81...Kg7, he plays the necessary Be4 (or Bd3) to get the Bishop to the h5 diagonal, and the game should be drawn again. |
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| May-26-08 |
| Judah: Which it is, for a few moves, but White still has to be alert. On the 88th move, Black sets a trap. White's Bishop, King, and pawn are all in a line:
click for larger view
With Ra4, Black has a very cute little pin: the King is pinned to the Bishop, the Bishop is pinned to the pawn, and the end result is that all of White's pieces are pinned to their places as Black's King finally takes his long-awaited stroll to h5. White needed to get his Bishop off of that deadly rank immediately. (Moving the King instead with Kg3 doesn't work because of the interpolation ...Ra3+, where either direction the King moves leads to a pin again.) However White doesn't notice the tactic, and with 89.Kf4, he makes the final blunder. |
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